THE NEW STUDENT

You live like a superstar in the class when everyone knows that you are a scholar; the type of student that has straight A's even without praying to snakes and cows on the day of the exams like most of your classmates do. You love your kind of life and you love seeing heads turn to look at you when you enter the class every morning. The way girls frolic around you makes the other guys feel jealous. Some think you are obnoxious while others, especially the girls, think that the knowledge in your head is the reason why you stick up your nose around the class. Everyone acknowledges that you are brilliant but your attitude puts them off most times. 

Then comes one cold fateful morning in mid-July. This is the time when school hardly accepts new students because the third term exams are near and they can’t allow a newcomer to spoil the cumulative grade of the class. So when you see a newcomer in your class that morning, you know that something has gone wrong. 

You enter the class unnoticed, which is quite unusual because the girls always make a scene at your entrance. You sit and begin to scatter your desk in an attempt to garner attention but no one turns to you. 

You notice that someone is talking in the middle, a strange voice. 

Resigning to fate, you put your head on your desk, praying that it's nothing serious and you'd be the center of attraction and command everyone's attention soon enough. 

Like an answer to your prayer, you feel someone’s presence in front of your desk. You raise your head to see the loyal fan who is back but your eyes meet a stranger who is all smiles. You are mesmerized but you remind yourself that you should hate this person for stealing your fans from you. 

“Hello, I’m Love Again. I have met with everyone else except you. Although, I have heard pretty much everything about you. It'd be nice to have you as a friend too. "

She stretches her hand in a gesture to shake yours but you ignore her and leave the class. You think she’d be shaken at that but the moment you leave, she chatters on like what you didn't matter to her. Right there, you can tell that she will be a tough person to handle. 

You stand in the class corridor, awaiting the teacher's arrival but instead, students from other classes find their way to your class too. Even from where you stand, you can hear her voice as she talks about her home somewhere overseas. Her dog, the fact that she can dance, sing and also draw, the greatest works of art she has seen like the Original Mona Lisa painting and others.

You wonder how someone can be able to do all that. You sneer when the whole class gush at her and ask her more about the US, a place that only exists in their books and hearts.

“pretenders”, you scoff. 

The teacher walks in eventually. 

“Settle down guys. Today, I’m not feeling well enough to teach. I will write questions on the board and give you guys time to solve it on the board. Two students will solve one question at a time.”

Your face breaks into a smile because you know that you are best at what you do. You wait patiently for the teacher to call you whilst praying that you would have to go against the new girl.

The teacher calls your name and hers. You look at her face hoping to catch an iota of fear but all you see is a confident and smiling face. 

The teacher writes a question on the board and asks you both to solve it within five minutes. You look at the question and smile because it is a topic that proves your proficiency in maths.

Overconfidence gets the best of you and you start scribbling the solution on the board. You glance at her side hoping to see that she is stuck or doesn’t know the answer but she is busy solving too. 

Her eyes meet yours and you give her an i-will-show-you-who-is-boss look before turning back to your side of the board. 

Time up. 

As you step aside for the teacher to check, you grin ear to ear, wondering what the teacher's choice of words will be when she commends your brilliance.   

“Fred, you got the answer wrong because you applied the conversion wrongly. Love Again, you got it correctly. Keep the good work up, it’s such a great start for you.”

Your legs didn’t wait for the teacher's final words. You feel like your teacher is a betrayer too, also wondering how she could turn against you in front of a new student. 

You run past the school blocks to the extreme parts of the school and immediately you find solace, you cry for what seems like hours, blaming yourself for making such mistake, your parents for not taking you abroad despite your pleas yearly, your classmates for turning against you, your teacher for commending her and Love Again, for coming to your school. 

You throw a stone at lizards like they are the cause of your misfortunes. Suddenly, you notice someone's presence behind you. You turn around to see your greatest enemy staring at you. This time, you notice her brown eyes and oblong face. You see the braces she has on and that the tiny necklace on her neck has a bird-shaped pendant. 

“I didn’t come here to disrupt your lives or make you feel bad. I just want to be around people who love me. We left the US because I was always lonely. No one wanted to play with a black-skinned child. I couldn’t walk to the front of the class without being bullied by students and teachers alike.”

You notice the sincerity in her voice as she speaks and also sees the tears in her eyes that she tries to blink away. 

“When I got here this morning, I felt loved. I felt like this was where I belonged and I wanted to make the best use of the affection by radiating the same love back to everyone. I’m just happy that I finally belong somewhere. Do you care to know the number of times I changed schools abroad because I always chickened out anytime someone threatened me because of my color? They always reminded me of how different I was and the feeling alone was so depressing.”

You give her your handkerchief because the tears rolling down her face mars her beautiful look. She clears her voice and wipes her face, “Everyone treated us differently. Dad lost his job because the clients didn’t want to work with a colored person. Mum couldn’t join the women's associations because they made it clear that her color was a criterion for joining. Everyone reminded us of how different we were. They wrote it all around the sky, bold enough for us to see. I didn’t come here to compete with you, I just want to be happy around people outside my family. “

You look at her eyes and the sincerity in them is very clear. You know it is your turn to speak but you are tongue-tied. You simply wrap your hands around her and give her a hug that signals the start of your friendship. 

That moment, you didn’t know that you both would become instruments of change for your country. You didn’t know that you would eventually travel abroad with a business idea and a tough skin to survive the world that is plagued with discrimination against your race. You had no idea that you would be the one to start a company that will employ thousands of colored people. You didn’t know yet that your new friend will be the strongest and most revered activist whose words would wash away the dirt of racism from high places. 

You don’t know about all that. All you know right now is that you are holding someone who is already your best friend.

©Jeariogbe Esther Boluwatife

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